Blackbird, Chapter One
"Ai wants us," I told Trinity and Nicole as I woke up to the beautiful Chinese sunrise. "How do you know that?" Trinity asked. She and her younger sister were standing in the doorway of my bedroom, already dressed and ready for a long day of training. They had come into my room to wake me up, but found me laying wide awake in my bed. "Did you have a dream?" I nodded, getting out of bed and standing in front of my friends in my pajamas. "In the dream, Ai was telling me that she had something to give to us, and that we need to open the goddess scroll and go to her," I explained. "Then I woke up." "Did she say when to open it?" Nicole asked. I shook my head. "I guess whenever we're all dressed and ready to go," I assumed. "Now, if you two will excuse me, I'm going to be getting dressed." My friends nodded and left the room, chatting about what Ai could possibly want with us. Meanwhile, I got dressed into a yellow tank top and dark blue jean shorts. I slipped my brown sandals with red straps onto my feet. As I grabbed my comb, I wondered what I could do with my hair. I stared at myself in the mirror. My blue-green eyes still couldn't decide if they were blue or green and seemed to fight over each other, creating a blue-green color in my eyes. My long, wavy blonde hair was full of knots and tangles, like it always was in the morning. I adjusted my brown, rectangular glasses onto my nose as I pulled the comb through my hair, grunting at the pain. After about five minutes, my hair was almost perfectly combed. I grabbed a brown scrunchie and put my hair up in a sloppy low ponytail, and walked out of my room to the dining hall, where all the masters were congregated. I explained that Ai needed us for something and wanted us to open the goddess scroll. "Do you think Shifu would allow that?" Trinity asked. "Well, if Ai wants you three, then yeah, I bet he would," Po said. "I mean, she's a goddess, right?" "Yeah, Master Shifu would definitely let you guys go," Viper said. "Why don't you go right now, and we'll tell him where you three went?" "Sure, Vi, thanks," Nicole said as she grabbed a muffin out of the bowl in the middle of the table and took a large bite of it. "As soon as we finish breakfast," she continued after swallowing. Trinity and I both grabbed our own muffins and, after quickly eating them, ran to the hall of warriors. We found the goddess scroll displayed in a locked case made of very thick glass. The case rested on a stone pedestal. This is where Shifu had put the goddess scroll so that we could reach it easily if Ai ever needed us to go to the afterlife again. Next to the goddess scroll was the sword of heroes, resting on an identical stone pedestal. The sword of heroes belonged to me now, and I only used it during battles with enemies, not during training. It was far too powerful to use during training. Trinity walked up to the goddess scroll and looked at the lock that was on the case. This was a normal combination lock, and it could only be opened with a four letter combination. Quickly, Trinity punched in the combination which Shifu had created- D-S-A-S, which stood for 'Dragon Sisters Ai's Scroll'. It was a clever password, and a bit hard to guess, which he wanted. Immediately, the lock opened, and Trinity carefully took the top off of the glass case and took out the goddess scroll in its small, blood red container. Without a word, the three of us walked to the moon pool and stood in front of it. Trinity slowly opened the case and took out the scroll. The handles were silver, the paper was shimmering gold. "Here we go," Nicole muttered. She took one end of the scroll, Trinity took the other end, and I took the middle. Trinity and Nicole opened the scroll, and we read the paragraph on it out loud, Ai and Oogway shared feelings for each other, loving one another, hating everyone whom dared to hurt the other. And the feelings that they shared for one another will come between you and a male being on one of the two worlds, in Ai's power. All of a sudden, a figure rose out of the moon pool. This figure was a ghostly white, and transparent. It was the figure of a female human with long, wavy hair, wearing a flowing dress with a sash around her arms. The figure reached out a hand... ---- All of a sudden, our surroundings faded and turned into a room full of gold items, glass walls, and a pool similar to the moon pool, and a tiled floor. I sat up, and the floor straightened itself out. I saw Trinity and Nicole next to me, getting up and looking around. Then, we looked up and saw Ai standing over us. The goddess of love was no longer transparent, she had gained color and was now opaque. Ai's hair was now and oceany blue, her dress was a slightly darker shade of blue, her skin was a light, peachy color, the sash around her arms was a light red, and her eyes shone a sparkling aquamarine color. We looked next to Ai and saw that there was another woman there. She had long, flowing blonde hair, light skin, gray-blue colored eyes, she wore a long, white dress, had a silver crown on her head, and held a gold staff that was a few inches taller than she was. I didn't recognize this woman. She looked like another goddess. Ai smiled at us and nodded, not saying a word. The goddess walked to a golden throne with red velvet seating and slowly sat down in it. The blonde woman sat down in an identical throne next to it. They turned to us. "Welcome back to the afterlife, children," Ai greeted us in a powerful, yet calm and soothing voice. The three of us stood up and bowed respectfully to the goddess. "Thank you, Ai," we said in unison. Ai turned to the woman sitting next to her. "Regina-san, these are the eighth generation of Dragon Sisters who I've told you so much about," Ai said. 'Eighth generation?' I thought. 'There were seven generations of Dragon Sisters before us? Wow.' "Ah, yes, Ai-san," the woman said. She turned to us. "Kon'nichiwa, Dragon Sisters. I am Aqua Regina, the goddess of mermaids. It is a pleasure to meet you three." "It's a pleasure to meet you, too, Aqua Regina," Nicole said, bowing. Trinity and I did the same. (Author's note: Aqua Regina is not mine! She is from the anime 'Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch. I strongly suggest you look up a picture of her on Google images). Aqua Regina smiled. "Such kind girls," she said. "It's not hard to tell that you are descendants of Katia, Trila and Nichira. I have to say, you three look just like them, your great-great-great-great-great grandmothers." "Our ancestors have been Dragon Sisters for that long, Aqua Regina?" Nicole asked. Aqua Regina nodded. Ai looked at us and said, "Now, we need to get you three chairs. Pets!" Many tiny humans with lilies growing on their backs rose out of the pool of water. "Yes, Ai-sama?" a million tiny voices asked. "Please bring chairs for the Dragon Sisters," Ai ordered. "Yes, Ai-sama!" the many tiny voices replied. Three wooden chairs appeared hovering above the pool. The tiny humans took them and flew over to where we were standing, placing them underneath us. Immediately, they flew back into the pool. "My servants are very helpful, don't you agree, Regina-san?" Ai asked Aqua Regina as the three of us sat down in the chairs. They were surprisingly very comfortable. "Yes, Ai-san, they most certainly are," Aqua Regina replied. "Now, Ai, where are your sister-angels?" "They'll be here soon, Regina-san, don't worry," Ai said to the goddess of mermaids. "Now, we should probably explain to the Dragon Sisters why we have brought them here." "Yes, Ai-san, yes," Aqua Regina said. The two goddesses turned to us. We had confused looks on our faces, wondering why we had been brought here. "Girls, we have summoned you three here to explain to you about the Evanny," Ai explained. "What's the Evanny, Ai?" Nicole asked. "The Evanny is a group of warriors, gods, animals, or any beings, whose job is to protect all the worlds from evil and keep the World Gem safely protected," Ai explained to us. "The World Gem is a large, glowing crystal that rests in an underground base somewhere on the world of Kung Fu Panda. Every so often the members of the Evanny check on it to see how it is." "The World Gem is the only thing that keeps peace throughout all of the worlds," Aqua Regina added. "If it were to be destroyed, evil would reign over all of the worlds. But the World Gem can only be destroyed with the Sword of Heroes." The two paused so that we had a bit of time to take in everything we had heard, and then Ai continued on, "The person who destroys the World Gem would be the ruler of everything, and have the more power than all of the god's powers combined. But if the person who destroys the World Gem is pure of heart, chaos will not reign throughout all the worlds, and peace will be kept. The Evanny was created to keep all evil from trying to destroy the World Gem and to protect it. I, girls, am the leader of the Evanny, who decides who can join our group." "Are we members of the Evanny, Ai?" I asked. Ai and Aqua Regina both nodded in unison. "You have been members of the Evanny ever since you were proclaimed the next Dragon Sisters," Aqua Regina explained. "But, girls, there is a group of people who have been sending evil warriors to try and defeat the Evanny so that their leader can destroy the World Gem and become ruler of everything." "And what is that group of people?" Trinity asked. "We have not been able to figure that out," Ai replied. "All we know is that they have been getting stronger and are sending stronger villains to try and defeat the Evanny. But first, Dragon Sisters, they must defeat you three and gain the Sword of Heroes to destroy the World Gem, which is why you three will have to fight very strong villains in the near future." "Is there any way that we can strengthen our powers so that we can defeat these enemies, goddesses?" I asked, a bit afraid of the news of the villains to come. "Actually, yes," Aqua Regina responded. "Hundreds of years ago, during the time of the first Dragon Sisters, Ai and I combined our power and created the Voice Power, an ability that the Dragon Sisters can use." "To use this ability," Ai explained, "you must say these words: 'Song of magic, song of love, song of a voice, lend me your power'. Then, take your gems out of your necklaces and toss them up into the air. They will turn into microphones on their way back down. Finally, you must sing one of your voice power songs. This will cause energy and power to drain from the enemy, and give them a huge headache." "Ai, do we have to learn these songs?" Nicole asked. "No, Nicole-san," Ai replied. "When we give you a voice power song, the lyrics and tune will be transferred into your souls, causing you to know the song by heart as soon as we give it to you." The three of us nodded. "Can we test the power now?" I asked. The two goddesses nodded. "Certainly," Aqua Regina said. "Just let us put the power into your necklaces and give you a few voice power songs." We nodded. Ai walked to one side of the room and opened up a golden box that sat on a wood pedestal. Light flooded out of the box, and we had to block some of the light with out hands. Ai took out four things- a large, gold, glowing ball of light, and three other balls of light that were a bit smaller. She held the four balls of light in her hands as she shut the gold box. Ai and Aqua Regina stood in front of us and, one by one, Ai walked up to us and rubbed the ball of light against our necklaces. The necklaces started glowing for a second, then returned to normal. "The voice power has been given to you three girls," Ai explained. "Now, let me give you girls three songs to use in combat." She held one ball of light up. Suddenly, it split into three, and flew to our necklaces. It hit our necklaces and disappeared. Ai repeated this act with the other two balls of light, then put the large, golden ball back into the golden box. "Now, test the power, girls, and sing with all the love in your hearts," Aqua Regina said, smiling.